The stock rose as much as 5.4 percent, the most since Jan.
9, to 5.46 ringgit at 10:28 a.m. after Billionaire Syed Mokhtar
Al-Bukhary’s DRB said yesterday it agreed to buy the stake for
1.29 billion ringgit ($412 million), or 5.50 ringgit a share,
from state-run investment fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. HwangDBS
Vickers Research Sdn. and AMMB Holdings Bhd. said in reports
that investors should accept the general offer that will be
extended to minority shareholders.

Proton, which had two annual net losses over the past five
years, paves the way for Syed Mokhtar to widen his share of the
Southeast Asian country’s car industry and expand a business
empire that already includes ports, airports and power plants.
Selangor-based Proton gives DRB control of two Malaysian car
plants able to make 350,000 vehicles per year, more than the
total number of cars sold in Switzerland annually.

The “turnaround will take time,” Loke Wei Wern, an
analyst at CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. (CIMB), wrote in a report today.
“This is an opportunity for minority shareholders to exit the
company.”

Proton investors should switch their holdings to DRB after
holding out for the general offer, Loke said in the report.